Rep. Lanoue Explains His Vote On Cannabis Legislation

Last week, Governor Lamont signed the recreational marijuana legalization bill into law after several hours of debate in a special session. I voted no on this almost 300-page piece of legislation that was ramrodded through full of many ill-conceived concepts. If this was simply about the concept of legalizing marijuana without the numerous government regulations and interreference, I would have considered voting in favor of it. However, this new law is filled with problems and has very little to do with individual freedom or the actual public policy debate around the legalization of marijuana. Unfortunately, what this law does do, is disenfranchise those from rural areas like my district and enable and strengthen the special interests and those with political ties. I supported several Republican amendments to make this legislation better to include making it an equal playing field for all Connecticut Residents, support our police, protect our children and keep the state bureaucracy out of the marijuana business. Specifically, one of the amendments that was called would have removed the state from the marijuana business entirely which in turn, would have prevented the government from picking winners and losers. These amendments would have then set the stage to have an earnest and straightforward conversation and debate about legalization. Regrettably, all these amendments failed to pass the House and become part of underlining legislation.

Under the language in the present law, it is illegal to smoke marijuana and drive, but police can NOT stop someone if they see them smoking and driving.  When it comes to marijuana use among our youth it is illegal, but if police stop a car full of teenagers and smells marijuana the officer does not have probable cause to search the vehicle. To fix this part of the bill, Republicans introduced an amendment that would allow police officers to uphold the law by eliminating this confusing and problematic language; the amendment failed. These facts alone make this new law extremely concerning to me.

Another disturbing issue is the fact that this legislation creates a very burdensome tax structure that will include an additional local sales tax.  This will lead to very expensive cannabis products which will continue to allow the underground and criminal markets to flourish. Additionally, with these new and burdensome tax structures created for marijuana, what will be next? The sky could be the limit for additional taxes for items that we all use daily such as food and clothing.

Additional troubling facts about this law include:

• The industry will be governed by 15 unelected members of the “Social Equity Council” which does NOT include anyone from the Department of Public Health, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services along with law enforcement. There is no question that those departments should have representation on this council as this new legislation will directly and indirectly impact their areas of expertise moving forward.
• The bill is ripe for cronyism and abuse.  It was already discovered in the bill that it granted a former marijuana producer with strong political ties a license to operate. Having the ability to enter the cannabis market by bypassing all the other interested persons through the power of government is exactly what it appears to be; abuse of the system!
• Half of the licenses awarded for producers, cultivators, transporters, retailers and manufacturers are for “social equity applicants.”  This definition broadly includes living nine years of your childhood in a “disproportionately impacted area” regardless how old you are now or where/ how long you lived elsewhere. This puts very strong limitations on those who are awarded these licenses, and this is where the government is going out of their way to pick those that will benefit and those that will not have the ability to be awarded a license. With a limited number of licenses being available, local business from agriculture to businesses that have the ability transport these products will be excluded.

When state government looks to decriminalize a drug that has been against the law for decades, taking the time to get things right is of the utmost importance. Many that voted YES on this bill would argue that the legislature has been talking about this for the past several years now and it is about time it passes. I would argue that this new law goes far beyond legalizing cannabis, it has introduced a new industry to our state where big government will dictate who benefits from it and who does not. With all that being said, there was no way I could in good conscience vote in favor of this legislation.